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Revolt in the Church of England

February 7, 2012 By 2 Comments

gay wedding protest

The debate on gay marriage within the Church of England has become lively.  It  faces a rebellion from many of its clergy over a ban on gay civil partnership ceremonies on its premises.

Nearly 100 clergy from the London diocese, which has 470 stipendiary priests, signed a letter to The Times newspaper urging that priests be allowed to follow their individual conscience on whether to hold civil partnership ceremonies in their churches.

 

Churches position

The Church of England said in December it would not permit civil partnership ceremonies on its premises without the express permission of its general assembly.

This was emphasised by the Archbishop of York’s, Dr John Sentamu, warning to David Cameron, in an interview in the UK’s Times newspaper, not to legalise the possibility of gay marriage being performed within a church.  That is churches or religious buildings that want to hold a same sex wedding ceremony.

 

Watch this space

It appears that the strongest reason that religious organisations are opposing the idea of gay marriage and particularly gay marriage ceremonies within religious premises is that it starts the debate within their own community.

Lets admit it the sections of the Bible and holy texts that are interpreted as condemning gay behaviour are a bit obscure and could have many other meanings.  I note the demands to stone to death heterosexuals for adultery or anyone for eating shell fish are not rigorously enforced these days.

There is clearly going to be a serious conflict between the more progressive sections of the religion and those with a more closed, traditionalist view.

The real complaint is that the leadership of the Church of England seems to have lost their faith in the narrow interpretation of their faith.  If their view is right then they should be able to argue their viewpoint.  If they cannot then their viewpoint is clearlywrong.

 

What do you think?

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  • Seán McGouran

    Is anybody really concerned about the Church of England?  Especially in Ireland, Scotland and Wales? 
       The C of E had aways been a State Church rather than a ‘national’ one like the various Orthodox churches.  It might have remained ‘national’ of Henry VIII’s notion of an essentially Catholic church with the monarch as Pope as well as Caesar had remained in place. 
       But England had an inconclusive religious civil war and the C of E had to try to reconcile all sorts of disparate tendencies.  (They tended to ‘take it out on’ the Irish and Scots – so that was all right.)  It would be unwise to assume that the C of E does not still have incompatible tendencies.
       It’s a bit disengenuous to complain about the Church sitting on the fence about this problem when it has sat on the fence about the very nature of the Christian God.
       There is also the fact that Gay women and men – from deepest Connacht to central London could get church blessings for / of their relationships in every mainstream church.  The fact that such things were ‘unofficial’ is neither here nor there – some of these ceremonies were as well attended as ‘straight’ weddings.
       This controversy has created a situation where such blessings may well become more difficult to obtain.  Due to – what? – a push for ‘respectability’?